One thing I know, is that it’s good to roast your squash when making soup. Roasting squash deepens the flavour and caramelises the sweetness for you, creating a kind of magical, irresistible deliciousness.
Today I am sharing my roast squash soup with lentils and warming spices and I think you’re gonna love it!
What is a winter squash?
Winter squash includes are the long keeping varieties, as opposed to summer squash (like courgette or zucchini). They tend to be harvested before autumn and kept over winter.
Varieties of winter squash include acorn, butternut, kabocha, crown prince and dumpling.
You can use any winter squash for this recipe. I used butternut and crown prince.
Roasting your squash for soup
It’s not essential, but roasting your squash will take your soup to a whole new level of deliciousness. So I highly recommend doing that if you have an oven. It takes up to 40 minutes to roast. A good thing to do if you are baking something else at the same time.
Not a lot of effort is required because you simply cut up your squash, put it on an oven tray, pop it in the oven and leave it to cook.
Batch making squash soup
Since you are going to the bother of making this soup, I recommend doing the full quantity and batch making. This soup freezes very well, which means you can enjoy the soup over a few weeks or months.
To save simply decide what portion sizes are practical for you. Make sure the portion sizes match what you might want. If you are a single person who tends to eat alone, then measure the amount of roast squash soup you would one for one meal. If you have a family or a partner, then freeze according to group size.
Once your soup has reached room temperature then portion into glass or plastic food containers and freeze.
Tips for blending your squash soup
Using a hand blender to blend your soup
You have a couple of options for blending your soup. If you have a hand blender (called an immersion blender in the USA) then it is the easiest, faff-free method for blending a soup.
Using a hand blender means that you can leave everything in the pan. It will cream up nicely as all the ingredients will be soft.
Ensure that your blender is fully submerged when blending so that nothing splashes out.
Using a jug blender
Alternatively, if you have a large blender, you can blend everything in there. I don’t recommend doing it when it is hot though, which is another argument for using the hand blender method.
Roast squash soup with lentils and warming spices
A creamy vegan roast squash soup with lentils, fresh ginger and warming spices.
Ingredients
- 1.5kg winter squash
- 1.5 to 2.5 litres of water
- 150g (¾ cup) red lentils
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- Extra water if needed
Instructions
- Roast your squash first. Cut into pieces or wedges and spread evenly on a large baking tray. Your oven need to be hot around 200C (400F). It will take about 40 minutes, depending on the size you've chopped your squash, and the variety of squash. Your squash is ready when you can easily pierce it with a fork.
- You'll need a large pan to make this soup, preferably larger than 3 litres (6 pints) in size. Otherwise you'll need to do it in a couple of batches.
- Cook your lentils first in some of the water. Which should take about 15 minutes.
- Finely grate your ginger.
- While the lentils are cooking, add in the ginger, garam masala, ground coriander, sea salt and black pepper.
- Once the lentils have cooked add in the roasted squash.
- Add the rest of the water. Start with 1 litre, and add more if needed.
- Either blend directly in the pan with a hand blender (recommended) until creamy smooth. Be sure to keep the blending stick in the pan when blending.
- Alternatively blend in a jug blender. This is potentially more messy, and you might need to do it in several batches. It's better to do this when it is not roasting hot though.
- Once blended your soup is ready to serve.
- It keeps well in the fridge for a few days. You can also portion into containers and freeze it to enjoy later.
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